Potty Breaks (elective)Potty breaks are optional, and can be offered as often as the breeder has the time and inclination. Exactly how these are set up will depend greatly on your set up, the number of puppies, if you have a helper available, and other practical considerations.Offering puppies an opportunity to void after eating is beneficial for a few reasons.1.When our puppies go home it’s very likely their new owners will feed them, and then take them out to potty. By starting this routine early we build a very useful habit, that will give a boost to our clients house training later.2.We may want to crate our puppies after a meal, if our puppies have learned that after a meal they should void we will have a much easier time getting them to void quickly so we can load them back into a crate for a duration building session.3.Plus, if they all poop at the same time clean up is easier!So this week we will start taking our puppies from their meal, to their toilet, and we will be reinforcing them for voiding.If you have a secure and safe outdoor puppy patio available at this age you can take the puppies to your outdoor toilet, if not, use your indoor toilet.if you have set your pen up as shown in Puppy Culture, with x pen panels you can draw across your litter box, this will be super easy for you. If not, see if you can rig up a way to close the toilet off. If you prefer not to, that’s ok, it works as well to stand by the box and monitor the puppies to make sure they go in the box. Just place wondering puppies back into the litter box until it voids or makes it clear they don’t need to.You can use social interaction or food to reinforce voiding in the toilet but I keep cheerios in a small bucket I hang near my litter box, so I tend to use cheerios. I use a tactile marker (head tap) to mark the puppy for voiding but if your timing is good you can just pop a cheerio in the puppy’s mouth right when they are done voiding. Praise is ok but not always reinforcing and it can distract other puppies from relieving themselves. If you block of your toilet zone:1.While the puppies are eating drag the pen panels over and close off the toilet (optional, see video example, helpful if you do not have a helper).2.Once a puppy is done eating place the puppy into the toilet.3.Observe the puppy, if it voids, mark it (head tap) treat and or praise (hint, one benefit of using the cheerios is I can tap/treat and the other puppies don’t really know, but if I praise the puppy it may well distract the other puppies from voiding).4.Continuing unloading puppies and moving them into the toilet, observe as carefully as possible so you can mark/reinforce any puppy who voids when placed into the toilet.5.After a puppy voids, you can remove the puppy from the toilet and place it in the pen, sliding open the wire panels.6.In subsequent chapters, if scheduling a duration session you would just take a puppy from the toilet and place it back into a crate.If you have an outdoor toilet zone:Outdoor toilet: (optional). If you have access to a safe outdoor toilet for your puppies you can start using this as soon as you are comfortable. I usually start at 5 weeks.1.While the puppies are eating place a baby gate across the door to the outdoor puppy yard. This prevents the puppies from running back inside. If it’s possible to “close” off the outdoor potty area as above then do that. This will depend greatly on how your outdoor toilet is set up, but the idea is the same, that we can observe the puppies in the toilet area until we know they have had a chance to void.2.Once a puppy is done eating, place the puppy outside (assuming the toilet is near the door). If you have a helper this person can take the puppy right out to the desired outdoor potty box, grassy area, or other toilet.3.The outdoor helper observes the puppies for voiding, then mark/reinforce.4.The indoor helper continues to unload puppies as they are done, and place them over the gate/fence into the outdoor toilet.5.Once puppies have had a chance to void, they can be released from the toilet area by drawing the panels across and opening it up.6.If you are working alone, simply escort or carry each puppy or pair of puppies from the crate to the outdoor toilet and place the puppy inside. Then go get more puppies, continuing to put puppies in, and taking them out, as you observe them voiding.If you have an indoor toilet zone but can’t fence it off:1.As each puppy finishes eating release it from the crate.2.Observe for puppies who need out, and the puppies who are out already.3.Mark (tap) any puppy who voids in the toilet and feed that puppy a treat before it leaves the box.Once the puppies get used to the routine you may find they will go on their own from their crate to the toilet, void, and wait for a treat.If your crate bank is outside of the weaning pen and it’s toilet zone:Just carry the puppies to the toilet area, leave them, and go back and forth watching for voiding as best you can. I tend to do the potty break when I have a helper at first, later on the puppies know to go right from the crate to the toilet if they need to void. That’s a great thing too!I try to start offering potty breaks before I put the doors back on the crates, as often as I am able, so my puppies really start to form a habit of leaving the crate and going directly to the litter box to void. This will be really be helpful later, if you choose to do overnights without a litter box inside the crate, because you will need to potty puppies during the night. So if they are already understanding and expecting that sometimes they will leave the crate, void, and then return to the crate things will go much better for you at night.

Practical and Pragmatic: Potty Breaks (Elective)

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